Saturday, December 15, 2012

Casting Shivering Shadows

Original Facebook post here.Today's whole-album listen-through: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. I've been both laughing and crying with
recognition at what was once easily my favorite S&G record. Though I
long ago outgrew some of its earnest conceits and embarrassing
lyrics (and that so-awful-it's-really-awful Dylan parody), I'm
overjoyed to rediscover the sheer tactile pleasure of its whispering,
chiming, finely etched acoustic sounds, and to feel again how deeply,
irreversibly I absorbed it into my bones as an impressionable high
school wannabe hippie (it explains why I responded so wholeheartedly to
Fleet Foxes, I guess, not to mention Langley Schools Music Project). I
can also hear in S&G's most consistently well-produced record the
subtle, tasteful-to-a-fault soundscaper Simon would become in later
records (One-Trick Pony, Rhythm of the Saints). Though my favorite track
is "For Emily," the song above is the one that made me well up this
time.

Comments:

Tony PenninoThe "Silent Night" overlapping with the newscast has a lot of resonance today.

Rob Weinert-KendtThe
songcraft is undoubtedly richer, more mature on BOOKENDS--Paul clearly
learned some jazz chords in the interim. He'd also heard SGT.PEPPER,
though, and I feel like the efforts to make a concept album, and to play
with the studio (the synth stuff, the
found and documentary audio material) actually detract from BOOKENDS'
impact as an album. And while the album's wintry-New-York mood is
impressive, the flaky, feathers-in-hair vibe of PARSLEY is, for better
or worse, just closer to my heart.